Refund for a cancelled flight

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Nicola Hood, Oxfordshire, writes A year ago, I was due to travel on an Alitalia flight from London to Bolzano via Rome. I had booked through an online flight broker, Bravofly, and paid €281 (£245) return.

Ten days before I was due to travel, Alitalia cancelled all flights on this route. As the airline could not offer a suitable alternative, Bravofly said I would receive a refund. I have this in writing, in an email from the company.

Since then I have tried everything in my power to obtain this refund. You cannot imagine how utterly unhelpful Bravofly and its staff have been, from denying any liability to hanging up when I eventually get through to the customer-services department.

Having paid using a credit card, I tried to involve Barclaycard, but it says that it cannot help under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act as Bravofly acted as a third party in the booking process.

My friends booked similar tickets through Expedia, and received refunds within 10 days. Bravofly, when it does respond, keeps telling me that it is the airline’s responsibility to reimburse the cost of my ticket. Why does the company not accept that, as my agent, it must apply to the airline for my refund?

A month ago I sent another request for reimbursement, as advised by the CAA. I have only just received an illiterate response from Bravofly, which says it has forwarded my request to its “supervising department”. Where do I turn now?

Gill Charlton, consumer expert, replies Bravofly is one of those hard-to-pin-down international flight brokers. It is really an online flight-comparison site with a booking system attached, rather than a travel agency with a proper back office to sort out post-sales problems. Its headquarters is in Switzerland.

While delving into Bravofly’s website, I came across a statement of its “brand values”. One of these is headlined “The Support” and says that “even after their purchase, customers can contact Bravofly for any requirement regarding the choice made… 24 hours a day, seven days a week”. The UK assistance line – a London telephone number – is diverted to a call centre in Italy.

I finally managed to make contact with someone in the company’s management, who promised to look into the matter of your refund. A few hours later I received an email saying that a full refund had been sent to your card account and giving a reference number. I understand that you have now received the funds.

Bravofly claims that it has repaid you in advance of receiving a refund from the airline. But that could be because it never applied for a refund in the first place or didn’t bother to chase payment when Alitalia failed to process it. The company says it has “specialist operators” to manage refund requests and that refunds can take up to a year. I think that longer than four months is extremely inefficient behaviour by either the airline or the flight broker.

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About Gill Charlton

Gill is an expert on Cornwall and consumer issues, especially legal disputes.